An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
The Sky Is Falling…..Again
Since I’ve been more than just a bit out of touch in recent days, I didn’t come across this column until this morning. It’s 2 days old, but still worth a read.
A dread disease, no known cure
by Wesley Pruden
Somewhere betwixt swine and swindle, we’ve got a flu crisis. Well, maybe not a real crisis, or even a semi-convincing phony crisis, but the government is working on it. What we have, actually, is a crisis of hysteria promoted in certain government precincts.
Swine flu, even with its scientific-sounding new name, H1N1, has only disappointed the crisis-mongers since it was identified in the spring. The virus sprang from Mexico, currently regarded as the source of everything bad or even suspicious, and it quickly jumped the Rio Grande. Then, after a fortnight in the petri dish of the mainstream media, leaped across the Atlantic.
A virus that could swim a salty ocean would certainly be enough to kill us all quicker than a federal bureaucrat could say AIDS, or SARS, bird flu, Hong Kong flu, killer tomatoes, poisoned peanut butter, global warming or strangulation by kudzu, earlier doomsday threats to the planet. By early summer, even a polite cough or an innocent sneeze was reason enough to call the undertaker to reserve a comfortable coffin. Then, probably due to media inattention, flu subsided to 11th place on one pollster’s list of things Americans worry about.
This week the Commerce Department, alarmed and chagrined to see one of its concerns sink so low in public fears, put on an impressive dog-and-pony show in Washington to dispense detailed guidelines to business firms for dealing with approaching doom (or at least severe annoyance). The story made large headlines in the newspapers, and of course provided the usual fuel for high-decibel TV news noise.
The government bureaucrats, with no experience in running a business as large as a lemonade stand or a hot-dog cart, were free with expensive advice: Plans should be put in place now for “tele-working and cross-training,” the secretary, Gary Locke, said. “The key is for every business to put into place on how to continue with perhaps a severely reduced work force.” The government even supplies a helpful “tool kit” to instruct businesses on how to prevent disease from “drastically affecting business operations.”
Though no advice is yet available for how to quiet hysteria, the government has a few hints to live by: Everybody should wash his (or her) hands frequently and cover his (or her) mouth when coughing and nose when sneezing. If that doesn’t stop it, a conscientious citizen should avoid putting contaminated beans up his nose, spitting in public or putting coins in his mouth. This is the advice we pay for, so we might as well use it.
The mainstream media, which learns slowly, nevertheless seems to be making a little progress. Largely missing from the coverage this time is the obligatory morbid reminder, usually placed no lower than the second paragraph, that swine flu may, or could, or might, you never know, mutate into the Spanish flu virus that killed millions across the world in 1918. But the crucial fact, relegated as usual to the 28th paragraph (if reported at all), is that so far swine flu strikes with an unusually soft punch.
“The [swine-flu] virus has not changed at lot,” a spokesman for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases concedes. The symptoms are nearly always mild, usually milder than the symptoms of a flu with no name.
This year’s swine flu is so far much less serious than the previous swine flu of 1976, when more people died in America from the vaccine than from the flu. Britain’s Health Protection Agency, similar to the U.S. Public Health Service, earlier this week sent a confidential letter to 600 British neurologists warning that the new swine flu vaccine may be linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the lining of the brain, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and is sometimes fatal. A similar vaccine in 1976 was withdrawn by U.S. health authorities after several patients died.
Our British cousins are ahead of us this time, both in attention paid to the flu and in succumbing to hysteria. To avoid overwhelming the National Health Service, which offers “free” medicine to anyone willing to get in line and is held up as a model of “the public option,” is offering mostly diagnosis by telephone.
Sarah Standing, a columnist for the London Spectator, writes of her 19-year-old daughter’s bout of not-so-bad swine flu. After a telephone diagnosis, “we were firmly instructed not to bring her anywhere near [the doctor's office], and my husband – her designated ‘flu friend’ – was sent scurrying off to Boots to pick up a prescription.”
Forty-eight hours later, the flu had disappeared. But not the government hysteria, for which there is no known cure.
i heard about this months ago. If you care about the people around you, youll warn them not to get the “swine flu vaccine”. We need to learn our lessons from history, folks. I think the whole thing is a horrid attempt by the scientific community to validate their existance and their crackpot theories. Global warming, a coming ice age (more believable I think than the earth burning to a crisp), an asteroid the size of texas coming at us, so on, so forth. We also need to take Hollywood alot less seriously. The world will end when it ends.
God’s timetable isn’t the same as man’s, contrary to what some fat cats would like folks to believe. There’s no way I’m taking that shot, and I don’t think I’ve taken Hollyweird seriously since I was about 10. Heh.
<blockquote>…more people died in America from the vaccine than from the flu.</blockquote>
That one always makes me smile. This same statement could be used as evidence for the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Suppose there were an outbreak and nothing were done and 1,000 people died. Now take that same outbreak, add vaccination, and it turns out no one dies from the flu, but 10 people die from complications of the shot.
Which would you prefer?
The truly scary thing is that anti-vaxers, through their irresponsible behavior, can put the lot of us at risk. Fortunately, I think that the percentage of people who will avoid the shot for poorly thought-out reasons is well below the level which would jeopordize herd immunity. Of course they will be the ones to suffer the more extreme consequences, but at least they will be eligable for Darwin Awards.
Jim you used a ratio of 10 / 1000. Thats just silly. Now I dont think it was MORE people died from the vaccine than the flu, which is an exaggeration as well, I think the numbers were very close. How you think as many or more people dying from a vaccine as the virus itself is an argument for the effectiveness, Ill not know.
The problem here is noone is taking the fine details into consideration, its just a broad, sweeping approach to a problem. (Like we do with most things!) When someone says “300 people have died recently from ______ virus” , you need to ask some questions:
1. What was the age / health of the victims? In most cases, like the swine flu, most of the victims have been sickly children or the elderly. Ill begin to worry when big strapping, healthy young men just keel over dead in the street like flies.
2. What else do the victims have in common? Who knows, maybe they all ate the same kind of candy bar, and theres some sort of chemical reaction bewteen Mars bars and the virus that makes it more deadly. (Silly example but you get the point.) It could be something in the water, they all contracted it from uncooked veggies, etc etc.
3. Over what time span? 300 people in 2 days, or 300 people in 30 years?
4.Where were the victims, and what kind of medical facilities are avail there? If you tell me that 300 people died of a flu virus, but 299 live in Zimbabwe, Im going to laugh in your face.
– and saying people jeopardize herd immunity? Your thinking of associating humans to cattle is quite frightening. I hope you arent in charge of any sort of emergency rescue operation in the near future.
Jim, obviously, once again, sarcasm from the author is lost on you. Not a problem….it’s probably just a liberal gene problem. And FYI, I won’t take flu shots of any kind. If you want to buy into the “oh my gosh, the world is going to end” panic mode, you go right ahead, but don’t expect everyone to be as foolish as you, K? Thanks.
SBz:
“Jim you used a ratio of 10 / 1000. Thats just silly.”
The example I used was extreme on purpose to make the point. Very different, round numbers make the situation easier to conceptualize. The point is, if a vaccine prevents more deaths than it causes, one might consider it a success.
“…I dont think it was MORE people died from the vaccine than the flu…”
I quoted directly from the article.
“In most cases, like the swine flu, most of the victims have been sickly children or the elderly.”
In fact, this flu was killing healthy young adults and sparing the elderly. Seems their exposure to earlier swine strains may have protected them.
“Your thinking of associating humans to cattle is quite frightening.”
Herd immunity is a technical term. You can learn the basics at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity.
OB:
“And FYI, I won’t take flu shots of any kind.”
I sort of expected that. I’m aware if your mistrust of science.
“…panic mode…”
Where did I suggest that? I’m well aware that this does not appear to be “the big one” that will innevitably hit one day. It seems to be no more dangerous than your typical yearly strain. But even those mild strains do kill. If I were among those urged to get the shot, I’d gladly accept the 1 in a million mortality of the vaccine vs. the 1 in 10,000 of the flu. Again, yes SBz, made up numbers again, but provided to make a point.
Well Jim, that’s where you would be REAL wrong. You know what they say about assuming, don’t you? Not that it’s really any of your business, but I don’t take flu shots because they make me EXTREMELY sick!
Jim Im aware you quoted the article, but if youll note I said the article was off “which is an exaggeration as well, I think the numbers were very close.” So in your eyes, if the vaccine cures 300 people and the flu virus kills 400, you consider that a success? Id say if even ONE person dies from the “cure”, then it wasnt a cure, it was a failure. If youre going to gamble with your life, why not just take precautions that you KNOW wont kill you and take your chances?
I dont know which cases you were looking at, but the first cases reported here in the states that I saw were in fact older, sickly people. I dont even remember seeing a report of any healthy young people DYING from it, in fact most people that get this flu get over it from what Ive seen.
Quoting wikipedia isnt exactly the best way to back your point, either. Wikipedia is known for having alot of false information, as just about anyone can edit whats in there. But I dont care where you got the term, the fact that youre referring to people in terms you would use for water buffalo is just…. scary.
Not panicking and taking flu shots isnt a mistrust of science, its a mistrust of people and their stupidity, which leads to really screwing things up. Science in itself isnt scary, its the people that think its the be all end all answer to everything. Sometimes common sense outweighs science by a huge margin. Running out to take a flu shot that might kill you, to avoid a flu bug that might kill you, is F#%^ stupid, no matter how you look at it.
Came across something that might be of interest….definitely in panic mode, IMHO.
More hysteria?
And an asteroid could hit the planet tomorrow.
Yeah I saw that…. 90,000 deaths ROFL. Let me know when the number gets even 1/3 that high.
Jim, you gotta keep in mind, this is the same bunch that pushes global warming. You know, that thing that supposed to be happening right now, even tho weve had record low temps for the past few years, and scientists in the 70s predicted we were going to have another ice age soon? I live in Iowa and every year here theres about 10 days or so where it reaches 100+ degrees, and many more where it hits 90+. Well, the summer is over and we had like maybe 10 days of 90+, the highest it ever got was 96. MOST days this summer it was in the 80s. The grass never even burned like it always does. Yup, were all gonna roast alive.
They also are told us that if we didnt hurry and elect Obama, the economy would crash. Well, its been on the verge of it, with no sign of letting up (long term). Then we heard about how if we didnt get the porkulus package passed, the economy would fail then too. Same results, unemployment is continuing its steady climb.
You seeing the connection? The people in charge WANT you to panic, and think that government is the only solution to any of these problems, when govt is either what caused them (housing bubble collapse) or just makes them worse (passes legislation to help the environment, has no impact on environment, but wrecks our economy in the process.) Remember what I said about common sense? If we start applying it here, you can start connecting the dots and this all paints a very NASTY picture.
Want some proof? read your article closely:
“according to an estimate from a presidential panel released Monday.”
Well well! And who is heading this little research escapade? None other than Kathleen Sebelius! *gasp* *staggers in utter shock*
Where have we heard her name recently? hint: Shes one of the people in charge of pushing the travesty known to some as “Obamacare”.
I know, big shocker.
This isn’t the flu that we’re used to,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said of the H1N1 virus.
Yes, with all her years and years of medical laboratory and first hand hospital experience as a doctor, she gives us this brilliant analysis.
Youve got to think for yourself, man. You quoted a liberal newspaper, that ran an article churned out by a very pro government administration ran by very socialist people, trying to promote their radical powergrab (that the whole country seems to be against) by scaring us with a flu virus. Stop and think, please.